Thursday, December 31, 2015

Not long left to see our first ever temporary exhibition which has the title Witches and Witchlore: illustrations by Jos A Smith. It has proven very popular with visitors but sadly, it will have to be taken down next week (on Monday January 4th to be precise). There are four days left to see this exhibition (if you haven't seen it yet) and only four days left to see it again if you loved it when you visited!

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Over winter, the Museum team often have a bit of a tidy-up and move around. This helps us keep the displays fresh and gives repeat visitors something new to see when they visit. This year, we've moved some of the objects relating to sacred sites to the upstairs gallery and this has made space for the redisplaying of the cunning folk display outside the Wise Woman's cottage. This includes a section on Joan Wytte.

A new addition to the Museum of Witchcraft & Magic CD
collection, this selection of poems with music has been produced by Circle of
Spears Productions, with all profits donated to the Museum of Witchcraft &
Magic

The Museum owns a series of four paintings by local artist Vivienne Shanley. They are called Imbolc Witch, Beltane Witch, Lammas Witch and Samhain Witch. For many years, they were on display in the Museum, available for sale as cards in the Museum shop and they also feature on the Museum's two chanting CDs. They are now back on display near the exit to the Museum and near the Wheel of the Year to which they have such a strong connection. They are also in the room which has the chanting CDs playing on a loop so they are in a fitting spot!

Sunday, December 27, 2015

The Museum has an amazing collection of talismans based designs found in the Black Pullet grimoire. They were created by Mrs A Dodsworth from Paignton in Devon. They have recently been moved to the groundfloor of the Museum where we hope visitors will be able to better appreciate them. In the photograph below, you can see the Black Pullet display on the left with herbs and healing on the right and the Christian Magic display at the end.

The Museum was recently told about this documentary which includes a section with Cecil Williamson, the founder of the Museum. It also contains sections with Doreen Valiente, Alex and Maxine Sanders, Keith Thomas, Theo Brown and William Paynter (amongst others).

The section featuring the Museum is from around 30 minutes into the programme. It is worth sticking with it to the end for the part which says "Quite simply you've sold your soul!" and then a shot of the Museum interior back then.

The youtube description: An extremely rare documentary about Witchcraft aired once in
the UK in 1971. Featuring contributions from Eleanor Bone, Cecil Williamson,
Alex & Maxine Sanders, Doreen Valiente et al. Very much of its time and
with some very rare footage, also includes reference to the famously unsolved
murder of Charles Walton on Meon Hill.

Saturday, December 26, 2015

A green Yuletide gift giver statue purchased recently for the Museum from a local "junk" shop.

The Museum is open this week every day from 12-5pm (last entry at 4.30pm). We will close at 5pm on Sunday January 3rd and not re-open again until March 25th. This will be the last opportunity to see our current exhibition Witches and Witchlore by Jos A Smith as we will be packing this up and installing our next exhibition in January.

Simon Costin, the Director of the Museum writes of the redisplayed Richel Collection:"Wunderkammer, or cabinets of curiosities, first appeared in
mid-sixteenth century Europe as repositories for exotic, wondrous and awe
inspiring objects. The Richel Collection at the museum is all of those things
and due to the fact that we know so little about the objects or why they were
created, the re-display makes a nod to those early precursors to modern museums
and also to the way that Bob Richel himself displayed the objects, grouped
closely together within a cupboard over a series of shelves. You will have to
come to the museum when we re-open over Christmas and New Year to see our very
own Cabinet of Wonder."

Thursday, December 03, 2015

If you are a Friend of the Museum and you weren't able to attend the AGM in November, we have a few copies of the guidebook that was created to link in with the pop Museum run by the Friends organisation this year. If you contact the Museum, we can send you one in the post.

Wednesday, December 02, 2015

During the Museum's photography volunteering project, some of our recent acquisitions have been photographed. One particularly interesting donation can be seen here. They were donated by Judith Noble and came with the following text:

"These three poppets were found by caretakers over the weekend of 6th-7th June 2015 on a fire escape at the Arts University Bournemouth. There was no indication as to who had made them or why, but a pentagram had been scratched onto the wall next to where they were left. It is unlikely they were made by students as term time had finished some time previously and the students had left for the summer.

The people who found the poppets (which they referred to as "Voodoo Dolls") were very disturbed by them, as were the people who occupied the office next to the fire escape; they needed reassurance that the dolls were not intended to be images of them. One person even suggested that the police should be called.

It is unlikely that we will ever find out more about the origin of these poppets, but they (and the reaction they evoked) are a very interesting demonstration of continuing belief in the power of image magic, and, at the very least, the continuing hold witchcraft has over the popular imagination."

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About Me

I am a privately owned museum which has been in existence since 1951 when I first opened on The Isle of Man. I have been in Boscastle since 1961 and display a large collection of witchcraft related artefacts dating from prehistory to today. I also have a large library with around 5,000 books which is used by researchers from the UK and around the world. This photo shows Cecil Williamson, founder of the museum.